


skin in the game

by Slumber



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Backstory, Getting Together, M/M, Needles, Piercings, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29835198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slumber/pseuds/Slumber
Summary: Kojiro doesn’t ask if Kaoru’s sure—Kaoru never does anything half-assed, and he sure as hell wouldn’t start something unless he’s already reasoned his way through it a dozen times and then some.In which Kojiro does Kaoru's piercings for him.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 26
Kudos: 285





	skin in the game

**Author's Note:**

> This is literally just Kojiro doing Kaoru's piercings for him, so if the thought of needles/blood upsets you, consider yourself warned. Kids, don't do this at home.

Kojiro doesn’t ask if Kaoru’s sure—Kaoru never does anything half-assed, and he sure as hell wouldn’t start something unless he’s already reasoned his way through it a dozen times and then some.

It’s funny to think about someone who sneaks out on school nights to do tricks on a skateboard, but Kaoru isn’t the kind of guy who leaves anything to chance. Not even with skateboarding. Kojiro’s seen his notebooks, filled with pages of advanced formula meant, presumably, to find the perfect angle of an ollie, the ideal speed and velocity of a downhill swerve. He’s seen bits and pieces of the app Kaoru’s working to develop, too, a guide for helping make split decisions on a course, meant to calculate success within a few percentage points. 

So by the time Kojiro’s brought into the picture, he knows: of _course_ Kaoru’s sure. There’s a reason for this, for everything—even why it has to be Kojiro.

That’s what he wants to know, so that’s what he asks instead. 

“I—” Kaoru says, chewing on his lower lip, and sometimes it feels nice when Kojiro can do something Kaoru hasn’t already anticipated, throw a curveball he’ll need to respond to with his gut. But all he does is fall silent, and Kojiro can see the way he composes the answer in his head, finding the best way to phrase what he has to say. “I thought you’d be able to see it better than I could, even with a mirror.”

A lie, then. “Shindo could see it better, too,” he says.

“Shindo’s got cram school,” Kaoru mumbles, his cheeks pinking. “And he’d—”

Kojiro arches an eyebrow.

Kaoru shakes his head. “If you don’t want to do it, just say so, I just thought—”

“Didn’t say I wouldn’t do it,” Kojiro says. “Relax. It’s just kinda…”

“I looked into it thoroughly,” Kaoru says, and of that Kojiro has no doubt. He would. He even got the right materials for it. There’s a neatly written list of instructions and Kaoru already made Kojiro read through them multiple times to make sure he knew every step of it by heart. 

“Is it the pain?” Kojiro asks, watching the honey-gold in Kaoru’s eyes flicker with something. _Bingo_. 

“I never had a high tolerance for it,” he admits. 

Maybe that’s why he has to calculate likelihoods when he gets on his skateboard, after all. Maybe that’s why he knows the best ways to fall. Kojiro leaves it to chance, to gut, happier to roll with the punches than think about them too much. 

“You don’t want to overthink it, then,” Kojiro says. “You want someone who’ll have the nerve to go through with it.”

Kaoru cringes. “Don’t put it like that.” He shakes his head. “I know it’s fine. I’ve read that it’s fine. But when I think about the act of—”

“I get it,” Kojiro tells him. “Guess it’s my honor to help out, huh?”

“Don’t push it,” Kaoru says with a huff. 

“Yeah, okay.” Kojiro grins. He takes a look at the items, picking up the gloves and making sure to put them on so his fingers don’t touch the outside. “These are all sterile, yeah?”

“Oh—we’re starting now, then?”

Kojiro gives Kaoru a look. “No better time, right?” Upon seeing the look on his face, he adds, “You got me here to not talk you out of this, so this is me not talking you out of this.”

“Right,” Kaoru says, picking up an ice cube to place on the inside of his lip. He reaches for the clean cloth, but Kojiro beats him to it.

“I’m the one with the gloves,” he reminds him, tilting Kaoru’s chin with the back of his palm before he pulls open Kaoru’s lip with his thumb and dabs the inside of it dry. He sees the mark Kaoru had already placed there, and it occurs to him, just now, how close he’s gotta be to be able to do this. How soft Kaoru’s lip is, pressed against his thumb. How bright his eyes can be in this light. 

Kaoru makes a sound, and Kojiro remembers just enough to pull away. 

“We need some kinda signal,” he says, sterilizing the needle and taking the cork up to place against the outside of Kaoru’s lip. “Tap me on the thigh if it’s too much, okay?” 

Kaoru nods, moving his hands to rest on Kojiro’s knees. His gaze is still on Kojiro when his eyes flutter shut, smooth like in slumber at first but scrunching up a few seconds later.

“Relax,” Kojiro tells him with a chuckle. “Do you want me to count for you?” 

A minute shake of the head.

“That’s right,” Kojiro murmurs, holding Kaoru’s chin up to position it properly, holding his lip open against the cork. “Take it easy,” he says, to Kaoru or himself he isn’t sure, following Kaoru’s breathing until the tension bleeds out of his shoulders and his face smoothens out, and he can push the needle through the next time Kaoru’s breath fans warm against his gloved thumb.

Kaoru’s eyes fly open, large pools of liquid gold so close to Kojiro’s sight. 

“There we are,” he says, offering Kaoru an easy smile before he dabs at the bit of blood on his lip and places the ring in. “How was that?”

“Good,” Kaoru says, nearly pushing his tongue out to rub at it before he catches the look Kojiro gives him and stops. “Feels weird.” 

Kojiro laughs. “What did you think it would feel like?”

“I dunno.” Kaoru frowns, glancing up at Kojiro through his lashes. “Didn’t really think about that part of it.”

“Is that right?” Kojiro asks, raising an eyebrow. “Something _the_ Sakurayashiki Kaoru did _not_ consider?”

“Shut up.”

“You’re welcome.” 

* * *

It isn’t a few months later when he finds himself in the same spot in Kaoru’s bedroom floor, with the same familiar set of materials laid out neatly between them.

“Let me guess,” he says, breaking out in an amused grin.

“Thought we could do my ear this time.”

“Both of them?” Kojiro asks, frowning at the identical earrings Kaoru had laid out. 

“Two on the left side,” Kaoru says, pulling back his hair and tying it up quickly in a high ponytail to show Kojiro where he’d marked his left ear. “They said the lobes would be good for this. But just the one seemed a little—”

“You want me to do both of these at once?”

Kaoru nods, and Kojiro has to look away from the way he’s tonguing the inside of his lip ring. “It’s fine,” he said. “It didn’t really hurt, last time you did it.” 

“You still don’t wanna do it yourself?”

“Didn’t hurt when I didn’t see it coming,” Kaoru amends. 

“Alright,” Kojiro says, biting down on his smile as he picks up the gloves. “You’re starting to owe me for this, you know.”

“I could get you lunch, I guess,” Kaoru says, frowning at the floor. 

“My pick?” Kojiro asks. “There’s an Italian restaurant that’s just opened up down the—”

“Yakipan at the cafeteria, I’m not loaded.”

“Is a few hundred yen really all my services are worth to you?” Kojiro gasps. “That’s barely anything—I usually eat at least two!”

“Because you’re a massive _oaf_ ,” Kaoru hisses. “Fine. Two yakipan.”

“And a drink.”

Kaoru purses his lips, the ring glinting off the overhead light. “Nothing more than a hundred yen for the drink of your choice,” he says with a sigh.

“You drive a hard bargain,” Kojiro says, holding Kaoru’s chin up and tilting it to the side, dabbing his ear clean. “But I’ll accept. Out of the goodness of my heart.”

“Just—”

“I know, I know,” he says, thumbing the lobe of Kaoru’s ear as he positions the cork behind it. “Take a deep breath for me, please. Breathe out.”

Kaoru doesn’t shut his eyes this time, though he does keep his gaze averted, a quick intake of breath that’s almost a flinch when Kojiro pushes the needle through. He cleans it up and places the earring on, giving Kaoru a few moments to get used to the sensation.

“Fine?”

“Yeah,” Kaoru says. “You can do the other one now.”

That, too, goes off pretty smoothly, and Kojiro has to admit, looking at his profile: Kaoru got the two-earring thing right.

“You gotta show these off,” he says once he’s taken off his gloves, reaching out to tuck a loosened lock of pink hair back. The curve of Kaoru’s neck, usually hidden beneath a curtain of his hair, is exposed smooth and pale, elegant in a way that feels forbidden. 

“Proud of your handiwork, are you?” Kaoru asks, and Kojiro can see how the color on his cheeks matches the red creeping down his neck, too.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Kojiro grins. “It’s not bad, you know.”

“What?”

“Your hair pulled back. Looks nice.”

* * *

Kojiro knows what to expect the next time Kaoru asks him over, two piercings on his other ear to mirror the first. He insists on a helix on that side too, saying he could handle three this time, but not before Kojiro makes sure they’ve got some orange juice handy.

“What,” he asks, crossing his arms at Kaoru. “Can’t I look shit up on my own, too?”

By the time that ear heals and he’s asking Kojiro for help with a matching helix on the left ear, it’s almost turned into a habit, a ritual: the materials laid out in the same square space of clean cloth, Kaoru sitting seiza by the foot of his bed, Kojiro taking his place across him. 

“This is the last one.”

Kojiro looks up from where he’s sterilizing the needle. “Has that always been the plan?” 

“Seven in all,” Kaoru says, nodding. 

It doesn’t surprise Kojiro. Kaoru has a plan for everything from the moment he starts them—even how many piercings he wants to get.

“I didn’t know if it would hurt too much,” Kaoru adds. “But I thought you’d know when to stop.” 

“Huh?”

Kaoru shrugs. “You asked, before. Why you.” 

“Ah.” He pushes the needle through, and this time, Kaoru barely even flinches. “And you were so sure I’d keep doing it?”

“Well, you did, didn’t you?” 

Kojiro huffs. “So what,” he says, placing the ear cuff Kaoru had picked out for his last piercing. It doesn’t look bad, the shell of his ear like this, adorned in these earrings. He traces the curve of it with his gaze, following the line of Kaoru’s jaw to the ring that hung off a pink lip. “What if I’d said two yakipan and a drink wasn’t enough anymore?”

“It’s only one piercing,” Kaoru says. “You’re getting just the one yakipan for this.”

Kojiro barks out a laugh, catching Kaoru’s gaze as his face breaks out into a grin too. “I don’t want a yakipan,” he says, reaching out to brush his thumb against Kaoru’s lip.

Kaoru’s smile stills, but he leans into the touch all the same. “Little too late to re-negotiate,” he murmurs, letting Kojiro part his lips even as he brings up a hand to close around Kojiro’s wrist. “What can I get you instead, then?”

“Did I tell you this has always been my favorite?” Kojiro asks, the lip ring smooth against his fingerpad. Kaoru’s skin is warm beneath his touch, and the inside of his mouth, when he presses his thumb further, is searing hot. “I believe you got this for free, too.”

“Did I?” 

Kojiro smiles. “You’re right. You didn’t, really,” he says, leaning over even as Kaoru moves to close the distance between them, lips every bit as soft as he’d felt they were that first time they did this all those months ago, the metal of the ring smooth as his tongue swept past it, the taste of Kaoru sweet and heady at once as he yielded, arms circling Kojiro’s waist, fingers twisting in the fabric of his uniform to return the kiss, just as hungry, just as eager.

Maybe Kaoru had always been sure of this, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't have been the only one who thought, no way Kaoru's parents gave him permission to get those piercings from a reputable shop, so he had to have DIYed them, right?
> 
> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated ♥
> 
> If you liked what you've read, you can [share the tweet here](https://twitter.com/slumberish/status/1367338854915715072?s=20). I've also been writing [Matcha Blossom fic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slumber/pseuds/Slumber/works?fandom_id=52382346) lately.


End file.
